Reptile & Amphibian Forums

This is the first time I've visited this forum, so please don't be annoyed at what is probably an over-asked question.
What is the best substrate for a small breeder colony of mice when it comes to odor control? I have 2.5 Mus musculus in a lab cage. I have had no problems with production, but the odor is a problem. I live in an area where buying mice from the local pet-store isn't cost-efficient ($2 for any size, get real). My snake collection is too small to consider buying frozen feeders. I'm basically stuck with producing feeders, but any help on odor control will be greatly appreciated. I live in a small apartment; outdoor housing is out of the question.
I currently use Carefresh bedding. I like the absorption qualities, but it doesn't seem to have any odor-defeating qualities. Today I bought 6 boxes of baking soda and placed them on top of the cage ( what a debacle ) Hopefully that will help a bit.
Mice and odor go hand in hand, but I'm sure there are some proven tactics to reduce the odor. My feeder group is so small that bedding cost isn't a real issue.
Thanks in advance. Shane

I do NOT recommend carefresh at all. it is too dusty and does not hold any odors in. My subsrate of choice is aspen. It may be more expensive than pine but it is cheaper and better than carefresh. also pine and cedar have oils that can be toxic, not necessarily to rodents (usually only causes allergies)but definately reptiles. I use aspen because i can buy the big bags and use it for my mice and snakes.

$2.00 a mouse is not that bad LOL I live in Alaska and the cheapest feeders are $2.25 for weanling to adult and $2.00 each for pinkies to weanlings. There is one store that charges a flat rate of $2.99 for any mouse(any color and any size)

I am trying to start breeding again but i need to find a cheaper supplier for my foundation colony and not to mention they must be healthy Good Luck!

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I need to look for some aspen bedding. I hope it works. I've bred rodents in the past, but I really don't remember anything useful. I took a peek at your site. Tough luck with your program. I never realized that contagions were a big problem with captive mice. I took the easy route and purchased all of my stock at the same place (which "guaranteed" a healthy base, so long as I don't introduce anything new). Good luck in the future. Shane

I've tried a bunch of different combinations... my favorite recipe is the following:

A small sprinkle of cedar (just a pinch), a layer of pine, some alfalfa hay (more of the leaves than the stems), and some raw cotton. The mice take the cotton and the hay and build themselves a little walled fortress of a nest. The pine/cedar/alfalfa combat the odor. This in addition to vanilla in the water (a few drops per gallon... imitation vanilla) and changing cages twice a week, and I have mostly smell-less mice.

I get the cotton from the side of the road. After cotton picking time, they take away the cotton in truck loads, and leave small amounts at the picking place (enough to stuff a dozen pillowcases). It's a nice substance for the winter when it's slightly cool at night. I usually run out of the cotton by the time the weather warms up.

Recently I moved my mice from living in the house to living in their own air conditioned shed. I've stopped putting cedar in their cages, and I use it on the floor of the mouse-house instead. It's smellier, but I don't really mind, because I don't share the same air anymore.
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~Sasheena

I use rabbit pellets. They are made out of compressed alfalfa mostly. With my rats I get between 1 and 2 weeks, depending on how many are in a tub. Which of course means nothing because rats don't smell as bad as mice. So my second suggestion is to breed rats if your animals can eat them. Unless you really need mice pinks, I'd breed rats.

DeMak

Rabbit Pellets will likely be your least expensive and most effective thing to use. Cellsorb works great but is twice the price of rabbit pellets. At least here I get 50# rabbit pellets for $8 and 40# cellsorb for $17.
I use exclusively pelleted bedding for rats but use shavings mixed with pellets for mice.
Cedar has phenols and the mice may not seem to suffer....but then they are going into your reptiles!
Aspen, in my opinion is no more effective than shavings.
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Sonya

Great information. Today I bought a bag of rabbit pellets and small pine shavings. I just cleaned the cage and put in the new stuff. I also put a handful of carefresh for nest material. Thanks again. Shane

Since smell is the problem, add a few drops of Vanilla extract into the waterbottle. This keeps the acidity of urine down and doesn't harm the mice. For me, pine shavings work the best when the breeder boxes are cleaned twice a week. Clorox wipes also help control sanitation, urine/fecal stains.